Hymnist

“ A hymn is the rhythmic aspiration of the race. No one can look through a good hymnal—through Hymns Ancient and Modern, for instance, or the Church Hymnary—without feeling that therein is bound up the devotional life of the world. The spiritual outlook is cosmic. Our every mood of penitence, praise, and aspiration resounds in melodious and time-defying strains.
In art, the religious spirit broods over the great work of the world. In Angelo, Francesca, Veronese, Botticelli, Titian, Raphael, Tintoretto, and Correggio, the brush of the painter has set forth the adoration of the Church of God. ”

“ Others find their means of voicing what they feel totally inadequate. The hymns they sing and appropriate to themselves unstop their silent tongue. High tides of spiritual blessings, times of refreshing when Christ is near to the soul, hours of privilege when the whispering of the Holy Spirit is heard, victories over fierce or subtle temptation when God’s grace proves sufficient, moments of God’s overshadowing presence when the whole world is transfigured, and a thousand other marvelous experiences in the Christian life—all call for hymns to express them. ”

“ An explanation of the notation of these settings is given in the note to Hymn 29. Congregational singing of hymns is much to be desired; but, though difficult to obtain, it is not permissible to provoke it by undignified music. Its only sound musical basis is good melody: good melodies should therefore be offered to the people, such as it has been the object of this book to bring together; and they should have as much freedom and variety of rhythm as possible. ”

“ Are they careless or irreverent in mood as they gather: can he sober their minds and awe their souls with a consciousness of God’s actual presence with a solemn hymn and its impressive tune? How shall he use the singing of the hymns to affect and win the unsaved whom he plans to invite to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Master? In a thousand ways the intelligent and adroit minister can make his hymns count largely in accomplishing his beneficent purposes. ”

“ The fathers of American hymnology, Professors Austin Phelps and Edwards A. Parks and Rev. Daniel L. Furber, set a good example to later hymnologists in their Hymns and Choirs in laying stress on the thought and sentiment of the hymns and in devoting nearly one-third of their study to “The Dignity and the Methods of Worship in Song,” discussing choirs, congregational singing, organs, and many other practical phases in the use of hymns. They gave little consideration to the historicity of individual hymns ”

“ Our best accounts of early Christian hymnody are often subordinated to a general history of Christian hymns. This is the case with the article, entitled, Hymnes, by H. Leclercq, in the Dictionnaire D’ Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie, probably the best short account in any language, containing a section on the hymnology of the first three centuries. [1] Charles Stanley Phillips drew generously from this source for the first chapter of Hymnody, Past and Present, which is written from the liturgical standpoint. [2] Independent studies are rare. ”

“ Scarcely any one of us ever judges our hymns fairly, because works of this kind have two sides,—their side for religion and their side for poetry. Everything which has helped a man in his religious life, everything which associates itself in his mind with the growth of that life, is beautiful and venerable to him; in this way, productions of little or no poetical value, like the German hymns and ours, may come to be regarded as very precious. ”

“ If they praise aught but God, they are not hymns.” Even now there are hymnologists who insist upon this limited conception. No less a writer than W. Garrett Horder, in his fresh and illuminating The Hymn Lover, insists that “the cardinal test of a hymn should be that it is in some one, if not the 26 whole of its parts, addressed to God.” This shuts out the use of sacred poetry in instruction, inspiration, exhortation, and special practical applications of hymns. ”

“ The hymn holds a premier place in the literature of poetry, but it is much more than poetry. “It belongs with the things of the spirit, in the sphere of religious experience and communion with God.” Some of the best hymns which have touched and transformed the depths of human life may not meet the tests of literary critics. ”

“ There is a style and manner suited to the composition of hymns, which may be more successfully, or at least more easily attained by a versifier than by a poet. They should be Hymns, not Odes, if designed for public worship, and for the use of plain people. Perspicuity, simplicity, and ease, should be chiefly attended to: and the imagery and colouring of poetry, if admitted at all, should be indulged very sparingly, and with great judgment. ”

“ Waldo S. Pratt, of the Hartford Theological Seminary, whose most valuable book has been quoted in these pages again and again, sums up the results of an intelligent and devout use of hymns most admirably: “Hymn-singing may surely be called successful when it affords an avenue for true approach to God in earnest and noble worship; when it exerts a wholesome and uplifting reflex influence on those who engage in it, establishing them in the truth and quickening their spirituality ”

“ Some of the old hymns did seem to lend us wings, so full were they of aspiration and hope and courage. To a little child, reading them or hearing them sung was like being caught up in a strong man's arms, to gaze upon some wonderful landscape. These climbing and flying hymns,—how well I remember them, although they were among the first I learned! They are of the kind that can never wear out. ”

“ But the feeling has been growing that in hymns, at any rate, life is more than dogma; and we have now some collections of hymns that come pretty near being books of poetry. The improvement in this department of literature within the past twenty-five years has been marked. There is still, indeed, in many hymnals, and especially in hymnals for Sunday schools and social meetings, much doggerel; but large recent contributions of hymns which are true poetry, many of the best of them from American sources, have made it possible to furnish our congregations with admirable manuals of praise. ”

“ The twentieth century has produced an impressive literature centered about the mystery religions and the problem of their influence upon Christianity; but in the field of hymnology there have been discovered only the faintest of traces. These are wholly stylistic. Christian hymns which reveal the characteristics of the repetition of direct address, or of relative clauses or predicates, previously mentioned, illustrate poetic forms which are, in the final analysis, oriental rather than Greek. ”

“ Let us abandon at once our contemporary connotation of the word hymn which is derived ultimately from the hymns of Ambrose, 340-397, that is, a metrical lyric constructed in stanzas. In the pre-Ambrosian period Christian hymns were largely of the psalm type, to be chanted in rhythmic periods without rhyme. Not only should the word hymn be conceived in terms of ancient thought, but also the futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles should be avoided. ”

“ Another purpose of the singing of hymns is to secure the active participation of the whole congregation in the service. Although the responsive reading is valuable in this respect, the union of all the voices of the people in song is more striking, calls for more aggressive effort, and definitely wins the attention of all to the sentiments expressed in the hymn. It creates more interest and stimulates both body and mind. ”

“ No student can leave the consideration of early Christian hymnology without a sense of defeat. The past cannot be forced to yield the hidden knowledge of which it is the custodian. Sources are very scanty, especially in proportion to other literary remains of early Christianity. Specifically, there is no collection of hymns in existence which might correspond to a modern hymnary. ”

“ That it has found its way into so many of the modern hymnals and by translation into so many of the other languages, is significant not as to the quality of the hymn itself but as to the fact that it is an expression of the tremendous movement of the soul of the gospel in our times which demands that the follower of Christ must make the interest of the people his own, and must find the heart of the world’s need if he is in any way to represent his Master among men. ”

“ The history of hymns, from the earliest to the latest times, furnishes one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the Church. In the hymn the spirit seems to bound into a higher life, and expressions which are scarcely admitted in cold conversation, which almost seem like exaggerations in an essay, or inflated even in a sermon, are felt to be a sweet, fitting, and natural utterance ”

“ The meters and rhythm of sequence poetry were popularly favored. Subjective qualities and attitudes which had been infrequent in the earlier hymns devoted to biblical themes and theological expression are much more obvious in later hymns. The personal petition and the direct address to deity and the saints are frequent. It has been suggested above in considering hymns upon the theme of the Cross, that a comparison of hymns from the earlier and later groups is instructive. ”

“ Tersteegen’s conception of the high place which hymnody should occupy in Christian worship is revealed in his writings. He says: “The pious, reverential singing of hymns has something angelic about it and is accompanied by divine blessing. It quiets and subdues the troubled emotions; it drives away cares and anxieties; it strengthens, refreshes and encourages the soul; it draws the mind unconsciously from external things, lifts up the soul to joyful adoration, and thus prepares us to worship in spirit and in truth. ”

“ In hymns and psalms we have a universal ritual. It is the theology of the heart that unites men. Our very childhood is embalmed in sacred tunes and hymns. Our early lives and the lives of our parents hang in the atmosphere of sacred song. The art of singing together is one that is for ever winding invisible threads about persons.'
England is a nation of hymn-singers. Mr. Stead says, 'The songs of the English-speaking people are for the most part hymns. ”

“ His role in the extension of the Roman Rite and of the Benedictine Order to Britain is familiar to all. [9] His authority in the western church is a matter not of controversy but of fact. That he was deeply interested both in hymn writing and singing may be safely assumed for there are too many reports of his activity to be ignored. His actual role in the development of the chant which bears his name and the authorship of eight to eleven hymns attributed to him, have not been determined. ”

“ The more singing, the more people, is the universal experience.
Hymns Create a Religious Atmosphere.
The use of hymns creates an atmosphere of religious interest and feeling that is realized not only by the believers in the congregation, but by 46 the unregenerate as well. They may not enter fully into the spirit of the exercises, but an intellectual interest is awakened by the singing that may rise into spiritual interest and into an approach to the spiritual life. ”

“ But if these purposes of the singing of hymns are to be realized and their values exploited, they must be properly employed. They must be made vital and their messages brought home to the hearts of the people. There should be no listless, merely formal singing of noble Christian hymns. There is unwitting sacrilege in doing that. The truth of God, the high experiences of his saints, are rendered unreal and lose their appeal—they become stale. ”

“ Such a study in interpretation will greatly enhance the spiritual values of the hymns to the minister himself, enriching mind and heart. It will make it possible for him to interpret them to his people. To any person the hymn is what he understands it to mean, no more; its effect on him is in due proportion to the completeness of his interpretation of it. The minister, therefore, is in duty bound to supply each singer in his congregation with an accurate and complete understanding of the hymns that are sung. ”

“ Fraught as they were with Messianic hope, it was fitting that such a hymn should ascend to the skies in the hour when God’s Paschal Lamb was about to be offered.
The Christian Church followed the example of Jesus and His disciples by singing from the Psaltery at its worship. Paul admonished his converts not to neglect the gift of song. To the Ephesians he wrote: “Be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” ”

“ Indeed, the hymnal of any church contains the writings of Catholics and of Protestants of every variety, for most hymns express the deeper aspirations of the soul without any sectarian accent. They are admitted into these compilations because of their intrinsic worth as transcripts from Christian experience, dealing with the essential truths of the Gospel. There is a healthy omission of those incidentals which interrupt whole-hearted Christian fellowship with all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as their central authority. ”

“ Nonetheless, one is astonished that persons of high intelligence, in their devotion to exclusively literary and 90 musical standards, should be blind to the great spiritual value of the better specimens of this indiscriminately condemned class of hymns, and to the extraordinary effectiveness and the immense results in aggressive religious work which this people’s hymnody has demonstrated. ”